Method and apparatus for providing application list

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure provides a method for providing an application list. The method includes: a mobile terminal records and processes information on a user&#39;s usage of third party applications to obtain history data about the third party applications, matches the history data about the third party applications with application information in a database of an application store, forms a third party application selection list from the matched result, and pushes the content of the third party application selection list to a display interface of the application store on the mobile terminal. An apparatus for providing an application list is also provided. The method and the apparatus can push different third party application selection lists to different users, display the third party applications in which users may be interested to indirectly realize user&#39;s customization, enable a user to rapidly choose and purchase the third party applications the user like, improve the purchasing and using ratio of various applications in the application store, and ensure Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) of an operator.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to the field of terminal communication,in particular to a method and apparatus for providing an applicationlist for a mobile terminal.

BACKGROUND

Thanks to desirable supportability and scalability of mobile terminalsto third party software, many mobile terminal producers have launchedmobile terminal application stores, for example, Apple's App Store,Nokia's Ovi Store, Google's Android Market and ChinaMobile's MobileMarket. A research institution reports that from 2008 to nowadays, theoperation of application stores on a mobile terminal has become verymature in European developed countries and regions, meanwhile Chinesemobile terminal market is entering a stage of high-speed development.For example, in 2009, about 52% of the Smart Phone users viewed ordownloaded and installed application software through Smart Phoneapplication stores. At the end of 2009, there were 35.72 million SmartPhone users. In the next two years, the customer numbers of the mobileterminal application stores will grow fast. It is estimated that thenumber of customers will reach 66.33 million by 2010 and exceed 100million by 2011.

In these virtual mobile terminal application stores, the number ofapplications varies from a few hundreds to more than 100 thousand. Thisfacilitates user's download, installation and use according to his/herown needs at any time and also brings about considerable income foroperators and original equipment manufacturers (OEM). However, theclassification and sequencing methods of the application stores arerelatively fixed currently, for example, classification is made bythemes, sports, animations or multimedia and other types, whereinsequencing is done by letter order or degree of popularity in each type.For mobile terminal users, as different users may have different favour,the sequencing by degree of popularity, i.e., TOP ranking, is unable tocover all types in which users are interested. Therefore, on one hand,users spend much time on looking for the applications they like fromtens of thousand applications; on the other hand, the operators sufferdrain of some potential users and influence to ARPU (Average Revenue PerUser).

SUMMARY

Based on the above, the main object of the present disclosure is toprovide a method and apparatus for providing an application list. Themethod and apparatus can provide applications in which users areinterested, display the applications on a display interface of theapplication store and enable the users to rapidly purchase third partyapplications through this interface.

The technical solution of the present disclosure solves the abovetechnical problem in the following way.

A method for providing an application list, which includes the followingsteps:

a mobile terminal records and processes information on a user's usage ofthird party applications to obtain history data about the third partyapplications;

the history data about the third party applications is matched withapplication information in a database of an application store and athird party application selection list is formed from a result of thematching; and

a content of the third party application selection list is pushed to adisplay interface of the application store on the mobile terminal.

Recording and processing the information on the user's usage of thethird party applications may include: acquiring attribute values of thethird party applications viewed by the user or downloaded and installedby the user, and processing and sequencing the attribute valuesaccording to the information on the user's usage of the third partyapplications.

Matching the history data about the third party applications with theapplication information in the database of the application store mayinclude: when the user enters an application store, the attribute valuessequenced in front are fuzzily matched with the application informationof corresponding attribute values in the database of the applicationstore based on a keyword.

The attribute values of the third party application may be aclassificatory attribute values or a spatial range. Acquiring theattribute values and processing and sequencing the attribute valuesaccording to the information on the user's usage of the third partyapplications may specifically include: acquiring the classificatoryattribute values or the spatial range of the third party applicationsviewed by the user or downloaded and installed by the user, recordinguse frequency of the classificatory attributes or the spatial ranges,and sequencing the classificatory attribute values or the spatial rangesaccording to the recorded use frequency.

Matching the history data about the third party applications with theapplication information in the database of the application store mayfurther include:

when the user enters the application store, the classificatory attributevalues sequenced in front are fuzzily matched with applicationinformation of corresponding classificatory attribute values in thedatabase of the application store based on keywords; or

when the user enters the application store, the spatial ranges sequencedin front are fuzzily matched with application information that occupiesa space within a corresponding spatial range in the database of theapplication store based on keywords.

The keyword may be a common keyword set by a mobile terminalmanufacturer when the mobile terminals leave a factory and/or a specifickeyword set by users in mobile terminals according to his/her favourduring the use of the mobile terminal.

There may be one or more keywords for fuzzy matching.

Pushing the content of the third party application selection list to thedisplay interface of the application store on the mobile terminal mayfurther include: the content of the third party application selectionlist is pushed to the display interface of the application store on themobile terminal in the form of a status bar.

An apparatus for providing an application list, which comprises:

a recording module, configured to record and process information on auser's usage of third party applications to obtain history data aboutthe third party applications;

a matching module, configured to match the history data about the thirdparty applications with application information in a database of anapplication store;

a list generation module, configured to form a third party applicationselection list from a result of the matching and send it to a displayoutput module; and

the display output module, configured to provide a content of the thirdparty application selection list to a display interface of theapplication store on a mobile terminal.

The recording module may be further configured to: acquire attributevalues of the third party applications viewed by the user or downloadedand installed by the user, and process and sequence the attribute valuesaccording to the information on the user's usage of the third partyapplications to obtain the history data about the third partyapplications; and/or,

the matching module may be further configured to: fuzzily match theattribute values sequenced in front in the history data about the thirdparty applications with the application information of correspondingattribute values in the database of the application store; and/or,

the display output module may be further configured to: push the contentof the third party application selection list to the display interfaceof the application store on the mobile terminal in the form of a statusbar.

Compared with the related art, a method and apparatus for providing anapplication list by a mobile terminal in the present disclosure can pushdifferent third party application selection lists to different users,display the third party applications in which users may be interested toindirectly realize user's customization, reduce the time the users spendon manual search among tens of thousand third party applications, enablethe users to rapidly choose and purchase the third party applicationsthe users like, save time for the users, raise users' satisfaction andimprove the purchasing and using ratio of various applications in theapplication store. The solution according to the present disclosure canenhance user experience and ensure Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) of anoperator.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic of a working process for providing an applicationlist in the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a schematic of a working principle for providing anapplication list in the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a structure of an apparatus for providing an application listin the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Basic thought of the present disclosure is: a mobile terminal recordsand processes information on a user's usage for a third partyapplication to obtain history data about the third party applications,matches the history data about the third party applications withapplication information in a database of an application store to form athird party application selection list from the matched result, andpushes the content of the third party application selection list to adisplay interface of the application store on the mobile terminal.

The present disclosure will be further described below by referring tothe accompanying drawings and embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a schematic of a working process for providing an applicationlist in the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 1, the following stepsare included:

S101, a mobile terminal acquires attribute values of third partyapplications viewed by a user or downloaded and installed by the user,processes and sequences the attribute values according to information onthe user's usage for the third party applications, and obtains historydata about the third party applications.

Specifically, third party applications have category, installation time,occupied space and other attribute values. All third party applicationsin a same category have a same classificatory attribute value. Forexamples, Cycle Racing and Tetris are third party applications in thecategory of Games and their classificatory attribute values are Game.When a user views or a user downloads and installs a third partyapplication, the mobile terminal reads out the classificatory attributevalue of the third party application, and records it based on usefrequency of the classificatory attribute. In other words, if there isno corresponding classificatory attribute value in the history dataabout the third party applications, and the user views or downloads thethird party application in a specific category for the first time, thenthe mobile terminal will store the classificatory attribute value of thethird party application viewed by the user or downloaded and installedby the user to the history data about the third party applications, andrecord corresponding use frequency of the classificatory attribute valueas 1. If there is a corresponding classificatory attribute value in thehistory data about the third party applications, for example, the userhas viewed or downloaded third party applications in the correspondingcategory before, the mobile terminal will add 1 to the corresponding usefrequency of the classificatory attribute value, sequence all theclassificatory attribute values in the history data about the thirdparty applications in a descending order of the recorded use frequency,and may obtain top X classificatory attribute values (i.e., TOP X),wherein X may be set by the user according to actual needs, for example,X may be set as 3. The history data about the third party applicationsmay be realized in the form of a database, and its storage may berealized through arranging a database storage area in memory. Thecumulative updating of a mobile terminal's use frequency of theclassificatory attribute values of third party applications viewed ordownloaded by a user may be realized through a current sequencingfunction.

S102, attribute values sequenced in front in the history data about thethird party applications are fuzzily matched with applicationinformation in a database of an application store.

Keywords are set in a mobile terminal, wherein the keywords may becommon keywords set in the mobile terminal by a mobile terminalmanufacturer when the mobile terminal leaves a factory, or specifickeywords set by a user in the mobile terminal according to his/herfavour when he/she uses the mobile terminal, or their combination.

The attribute values sequenced in front are fuzzily matched with theapplication information in the database of the application store.Specifically, when a user enters an application store, the attributevalues sequenced in front are fuzzily matched with the applicationinformation of corresponding attribute values in the database of theapplication store based on keywords, as shown in FIG. 2. In S101, whensequencing is done by the use frequency of classificatory attributevalues, the mobile terminal fuzzily matches the classificatory attributevalues sequenced in front with the application information ofcorresponding classificatory attribute values in the database of theapplication store based on keywords.

For example, if top 3 classificatory attribute values in the historydata about the third party applications are A, B and C, while thekeyword set in the mobile terminal is “a”, then based on the keyword“a”, the mobile terminal fuzzily matches the application information ofeach third party application of which classificatory attribute valuesare A, B and C in the database of the application store. During thefuzzy matching, “like” variable may be adopted to realize the fuzzymatching between keywords and the application information of the thirdparty applications of the corresponding classificatory attribute valuesin the database of the application store. For example, when the keyword“a” set in a mobile terminal is read out, the condition for fuzzymatching with a database of an application store will be like ‘%“a”%’.It means all the third party applications of which applicationinformation contains character “a” meet the condition, thereby the fuzzymatching is realized. According to the above process, the mobileterminal obtains all the third party applications of whichclassificatory attribute value is one of A, B and C and of whichapplication information contains the keyword ‘a’. That is, all the thirdparty applications of which application information contains the keyword“a” in category A, category B and category C are obtained through thefuzzy matching.

If a plurality of keywords is set in a mobile terminal, then the thirdparty applications obtained through fuzzy matching based on keywords maybe repeated. The mobile terminal only needs to keep one record of therepeated applications.

Furthermore, accurate matching may also be performed based on aplurality of keywords to make the matching result more compliant withuser's use requirements.

S103, a third party application selection list is formed from thefuzzily matched result and pushed to the display interface of theapplication store on the mobile terminal.

Specifically, the mobile terminal provides the content of the thirdparty application selection list to the display interface of theapplication store on the mobile terminal in the form of a status bar.

The interaction between a mobile terminal and a database of anapplication store is shown in FIG. 2. The mobile terminal establishes aconnection with the database of the application store, fuzzily matchesTOP X classificatory attribute values in the history data about thethird party applications with the application information of the thirdparty application of the corresponding classificatory attribute valuesin the database of the application store based on keywords, and obtainsa third party application selection list from the fuzzily matched resultto provide to users.

Through the above processing, the users can rapidly choose and purchasethe third party applications the users like according to the status barpushed onto the display interface of the application store on the mobileterminal.

As the mobile terminal conducts real-time recording based on theinformation on the user's usage for third party applications, the thirdparty application selection list provided by the mobile terminal for theusers are dynamically updated whenever they enter the application store,so as to make the third party application selection list provided forthe users more compliant with their use requirements.

The above processing may be specifically realized through a third partyapplication tracking and recording program in the mobile terminal.

FIG. 3 is a structure of an apparatus for providing an application listin the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 3, the apparatus comprises arecording module, a matching module, a list generation module and adisplay output module, wherein the recording module is configured torecord and process the information on a user's usage for a third partyapplication to obtain history data about the third party applications;the matching module is configured to match the history data about thethird party applications with the application information in an databaseof the application store; the list generation module is configured toform a third party application selection list from the matched result,and send it to a display output module; and the display output module isconfigured to push the content of the third party application selectionlist to the display interface of the application store on the mobileterminal.

Specifically, the recording module is configured to acquire attributevalues of third party applications viewed by a user or downloaded andinstalled by a user, sequence attribute values according to theinformation on the user's usage for the third party applications, andobtain the history data about the third party applications.

The matching module is specifically configured to fuzzily match theattribute values sequenced in front in the history data about the thirdparty applications with the application information of correspondingattribute values in a database of an application store.

The display output module is specifically configured to push the contentof the third party application selection list to the display interfaceof the application store on the mobile terminal in the form of a statusbar.

As the realization of each module has been described in details inrelevant part of the process, the description thereof is omitted here.

The realization of the present disclosure is further described below bytaking occupied space as an attribute value.

An attribute value representing the space occupied by third partyapplications takes spatial range as a criterion to classify the thirdparty applications. That is to say, a number of spatial ranges aredefined based on the space occupied by a third party application. Forexample, 0M˜5M of space is spatial range A, 5M˜10M of space is spatialrange B, and so on. Subsequently, recording and fuzzy matching areconducted based on this classification of spatial ranges. When a userenters an application store and the user views or the user downloads andinstalls a third party application, the mobile terminal reads the spaceoccupied by a third party application, and records the use frequency ofthe corresponding spatial range. In other words, if there is nocorresponding spatial range in the history data about the third partyapplications and the user views or downloads the third party applicationin the spatial range for the first time, the mobile terminal will storethe spatial range of the third party application viewed by the user ordownloaded and installed by the user the history data about the thirdparty applications, and record the use frequency of the spatial range as1; if there is a corresponding spatial range in the history data aboutthe third party applications and the user has viewed or downloaded athird party application in the corresponding spatial range before, themobile terminal will add 1 to the use frequency of the spatial range,sequence all the spatial ranges in the history data about the thirdparty applications in a descending order of the recorded use frequencyto obtain top X spatial ranges, i.e., TOP X. If the top 1 spatial rangein the history data about the third party applications is spatial rangeB and the keyword set in the mobile terminal is “a”, then the mobileterminal fuzzily matches with all the third party applications of whichoccupied space in the database of the application store is spatial rangeB based on the keyword “a”, so as to form a third party applicationselection list from the matched result and push the result to thedisplay interface of the application store on the mobile terminal.

Specifically, the spatial range of the space occupied by a third partyapplication may be classified in the following two ways: the mobileterminal manufacturer sets common spatial ranges in mobile terminalsbefore the mobile terminals leave a factory, or users may set specificspatial ranges in their mobile terminals during the use of the mobileterminals according to their favour, or their combination.

From the above description, it may be seen that in the solution forproviding an application list described in the present disclosure, themobile terminal can, in background process, automatically record thecategory and other attribute values of an application viewed by the useror downloaded and installed by the user. Through analyzing data, themobile terminal can provide different third party application selectionlists for different users entering an application store, display thethird party applications in which the users may be interested, andenable the users to rapidly choose and purchase the third partyapplications the users like.

The above description is preferred embodiments of the present disclosureand are not intended to limit the protection scope of the presentdisclosure. All modifications, identical replacements and improvementsmade without departing from the spirit and principle of the presentdisclosure shall be within the protection scope of the presentdisclosure.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method for providing an application list,comprising: recording and processing, by a mobile terminal, informationon a user's usage of third party applications to obtain history dataabout third party applications; matching the history data about thirdparty applications with application information in a database of anapplication store and forming a third party application selection listfrom a result of the matching; and pushing a content of the third partyapplication selection list to a display interface of the applicationstore on the mobile terminal, wherein the recording and processing, bythe mobile terminal, the information on the user's usage of third partyapplications to obtain the history data about third party applicationscomprises: in response to recording a third party application beingviewed or downloaded and installed by the user, obtaining, by the mobileterminal, an attribute value of the third party application viewed ordownloaded and installed, and increasing a use frequency of theattribute value in the history data about third party applications by 1;sequencing attribute values in the history data about third partyapplications in a descending order of recorded use frequencies of theattribute values to obtain top-X attribute values in the history dataabout third party applications, X being a set number; and the matchingthe history data about third party applications with the applicationinformation in the database of the application store and forming thethird party application selection list from the result of the matchingcomprises: establishing, by the mobile terminal, a connection with thedatabase of the application store at an operator side; recording, by themobile terminal, a third party application in the database of theapplication store having one of the top-X attribute values andapplication information containing a keyword; obtaining, by the mobileterminal, the third party application selection list comprising therecorded third party application in the database of the applicationstore having one of the top-X attribute values and applicationinformation containing the keyword.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereinthe attribute value of the third party application comprises aclassification or a spatial range.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein thekeyword comprises a manufacturer-preset common keyword and/or a user-setspecific keyword.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the keywordcomprises one or more keywords.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein thepushing the content of the third party application selection list to thedisplay interface of the application store on the mobile terminalcomprises: pushing the third party application selection list to thedisplay interface of the application store on the mobile terminal in theform of a status bar.
 6. A mobile terminal, comprising: a processor;memory in electronic communication with the processor; instructionsstored in the memory, the instructions being executable by the processorfor: recording and processing information on a user's usage of thirdparty applications to obtain history data about third partyapplications; matching the history data about third party applicationswith application information in a database of an application store andforming a third party application selection list from a result of thematching; and pushing a content of the third party application selectionlist to a display interface of the application store on the mobileterminal, wherein the recording and processing the information on theuser's usage of third party applications to obtain the history dataabout third party applications comprises: in response to recording athird party application being viewed or downloaded and installed by theuser, obtaining an attribute value of the third party application viewedor downloaded and installed, and increasing a use frequency of theattribute value in the history data about third party applications by 1;sequencing attribute values in the history data about third partyapplications in a descending order of recorded use frequencies of theattribute values to obtain top-X attribute values in the history dataabout third party applications, X being a set number; and the matchingthe history data about third party applications with the applicationinformation in the database of the application store and forming thethird party application selection list from the result of the matchingcomprises: establishing a connection with the database of theapplication store at an operator side; recording a third partyapplication in the database of the application store having one of thetop-X attribute values and application information containing a keyword;obtaining the third party application selection list comprising therecorded third party application in the database of the applicationstore having one of the top-X attribute values and applicationinformation containing the keyword.
 7. The mobile terminal of claim 6,wherein the pushing the content of the third party application selectionlist to the display interface of the application store on the mobileterminal comprises: pushing the third party application selection listto the display interface of the application store on the mobile terminalin the form of a status bar.
 8. The method of claim 2, wherein thepushing the content of the third party application selection list to thedisplay interface of the application store on the mobile terminalcomprises: pushing the third party application selection list to thedisplay interface of the application store on the mobile terminal in theform of a status bar.